I’ve just entered three beers in a local homebrew competition. I’ve entered a few competitions over the years, but just recently decided to increase the competitions entered.
I’ve been entering the National Homebrew Competition for three years now. 2017 marked the first awards I’ve won (in any competition!), having two beers place third in their categories at the St. Louis Regional of the competition . Neither placed in the second round, although the Imperial Stout did make a best of show round.
Here’s a description of the those beers; the recipes are found at the links.
Revenge of Boris 2017 – Russian Imperial Stout. This is a beer I’ve been making in January in each of 2015, 2016, and 2017, and plan to continue this for at least two more years. I make 10 gallon batches, keg 5 gallons for immediate drinking, and bottle the other five gallons using CBC yeast. The bottles have been stored in my basement, with the plan to be able to ultimately do a five year vertical tasting.
The brewing process has changed each year. For year one, I borrowed a friend’s giant cooler and did a traditional mash and fly sparge.
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For year two, I used my two 20 gallon kettles and my brew bags, split the batch between both, and recirculated through both kettles and my RIMS system using two pumps. A friend of mine had the job of keeping the wort level even in both kettles.
For year 3, I mashed half the grain in my brew bag, removed the grain, then added the other half of the grain into the liquor from the prior mash. I’d heard Jamil Zainascheff discuss this method with John Palmer and John Blichmann on a Brew Strong podcast. I got the best efficiency using this method.
2017 did see a slight recipe change, but due to an error. Normally I used CTZ hops to bitter, then use East Kent Goldings for flavor and aroma additions. This year, due to misreading my Beersmith brewing steps, I added the EKG flavor hops when I was supposed to put in the CTZ. Upon discovery (shortly after the hops hit the wort!), I added enough CTZ hops to keep the IBUs the same, and found some older EKG hops. I reduced both of the later additions. Funny how putting half your hops in at the wrong time results in shortages later on!
The other award winning beer Marron el Alce, was entered in the Dark International Lager category, and was my attempt at a Negra Modelo clone. It was originally supposed to be an Amber International Lager, but once I saw the color, I knew that it wouldn’t fit there. This one followed my basic Brew in a Bag process with my RIMS system. I did ferment it using Mike “Tasty” McDole’s “Fast Lager” method, which shows that good beer can be made even using that short cut.